817
temperature
(mander.xyz)
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
this post was submitted on 12 Mar 2024
817 points (100.0% liked)
Science Memes
11004 readers
2888 users here now
Welcome to c/science_memes @ Mander.xyz!
A place for majestic STEMLORD peacocking, as well as memes about the realities of working in a lab.
Rules
- Don't throw mud. Behave like an intellectual and remember the human.
- Keep it rooted (on topic).
- No spam.
- Infographics welcome, get schooled.
This is a science community. We use the Dawkins definition of meme.
Research Committee
Other Mander Communities
Science and Research
Biology and Life Sciences
- !abiogenesis@mander.xyz
- !animal-behavior@mander.xyz
- !anthropology@mander.xyz
- !arachnology@mander.xyz
- !balconygardening@slrpnk.net
- !biodiversity@mander.xyz
- !biology@mander.xyz
- !biophysics@mander.xyz
- !botany@mander.xyz
- !ecology@mander.xyz
- !entomology@mander.xyz
- !fermentation@mander.xyz
- !herpetology@mander.xyz
- !houseplants@mander.xyz
- !medicine@mander.xyz
- !microscopy@mander.xyz
- !mycology@mander.xyz
- !nudibranchs@mander.xyz
- !nutrition@mander.xyz
- !palaeoecology@mander.xyz
- !palaeontology@mander.xyz
- !photosynthesis@mander.xyz
- !plantid@mander.xyz
- !plants@mander.xyz
- !reptiles and amphibians@mander.xyz
Physical Sciences
- !astronomy@mander.xyz
- !chemistry@mander.xyz
- !earthscience@mander.xyz
- !geography@mander.xyz
- !geospatial@mander.xyz
- !nuclear@mander.xyz
- !physics@mander.xyz
- !quantum-computing@mander.xyz
- !spectroscopy@mander.xyz
Humanities and Social Sciences
Practical and Applied Sciences
- !exercise-and sports-science@mander.xyz
- !gardening@mander.xyz
- !self sufficiency@mander.xyz
- !soilscience@slrpnk.net
- !terrariums@mander.xyz
- !timelapse@mander.xyz
Memes
Miscellaneous
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
What’s the flaw??
"Fahrenheit is how people feel" only makes sense if said people have never used another scale. You know how 100F "feels" because that's what you use. If you used Celsius you'd know how that scale feels instead, and be used to using the more useful scale generally.
See also: people who think they don't have an accent.
100 f is pretty close to average body temperature.
So above 100 means your surroundings are hotter than your body is unless you have a fever.
I think that's an okay land mark.
I have zero reference for how hot my body is because I don’t feel my ambient temperature.
What I do know is that I feel cold if it’s anything below 30, and I know other people feel hot if it’s above 20. So what people consider hot/cold must clearly be based on something more than the average body temperature
I'm not saying it's perfect.
But 100 being body temp is a land mark, so it's not 100% arbitrary.
And 0f is close to salted ice. good system, very human.
Today I learnt. So that makes a bit more sense. 100 standard body temperature, 0 your blood starts to freeze.
If your body drops to room temperature, you’re already likely dead. If it freezes afterwards is only useful information if you’re preserving meat.
Notice how the tweet doesn’t say “all people”. Context is everywhere and everything.
Farenheit is how americans feel. Celsius is how normal people measure temperature. Better?
Notice how the tweet doesn't say "American people". Accuracy is everything.
I fall to context again. The person writing is white and clueless enough not to be specific. Clearly. American.
Anyways. We are splitting hair over a silly tweet here.
Apparently the brown Americans use Celsius.
Celcius is how I "feel", because that's the scale I've learned and can relate to.
Farenheit is what you "feel" for the same reason.
It's not because one is intrinsically better linked to our bodies.
You're missing the point. The scale is what matters, not your personal experience or unit preference. From 0-100 F is right about what a human could be expected to tolerate without much help. In C, that's -18-38. That's a much more limited range in terms of human tolerance, but it works great for water, which would be 0-100 C. The scale doesn't translate as well to K, but it does end at 0, so there's that.
Yet people live in negative farenheit conditions.
Try telling a northern siberian, who commonly see winter temperatures between -50 and -100 fahrenheit, that 0f is right about the limit for a human to tolerate...
Exactly: or take folks who live in the tropics (about 40% of the human population) where it feels cold below 60F.
You think those people go out without thick, warm clothes? I get you're really committed to arguing for C against people not even arguing against it, but come on now. You know what I'm saying. It's not a particularly difficult concept to grasp.
You wouldn't tolerate 0 farenheit in the nude either.
You wouldn't tolerate 10 farenheit for extended periods either.
I know what you are saying and I disagree. I am not trying to say celsius is better than farenheit, I'm saying farenheit is not in any way intrinsically more human than celsius.
0 farenheit was chosen because that's the temperature of salty ice, The lowest temperature they could easily achieve at the time, it has nothing to do with what humans can and can't endure.
Whatever mate. I'm not here to argue you out of whatever tunnel your stuck in. Good luck with that.
Exactly. And you're not even pointing out that the human frame of reference starts at -18 Celsius! So a significant portion of the time, you're going to have to use negative numbers to describe the temperature.
Edit
To clarify, I am not arguing that Fahrenheit is a better scale in general. I'm simply saying that it's human-centric. Celsius is perfectly usable for human purposes, and also much more useful than Fahrenheit for scientific purposes. I'm just explaining how the meme makes sense to meThat makes no sense to me at all. what frame of reference? what happens at -18? Ive been out in temperatures both above and below that, yes its cold as fuck, but nothing special happens? If we move a bit further north here they'd call me a wuss, and tell me real cold starts at -30.
I find that really useful actually! Our world is made of water. In winter time here, temperatures above 0 means the snow will be soggy and wet, negative temperatures means it won't.
if the temperature was above 0 but has now dipped into the negatives, beware of ice when walking or driving.
You can use all the arguments you want, the truth is either system is perfectly useful for human day-to-day use if you are used to it.
The best system, for you, will always be the one you grew up with
Don't play dumb. We're talking about the range of temperatures an average person experiences in their day-to-day lives.
This might blow your mind but you can do the same thing with Fahrenheit. Just look for the number 32 instead of 0.
I never said otherwise and I totally agree.
However they are different systems and they do have pros and cons. Fahrenheit is more suitable for daily life while Celsius is more suitable for science.
Sorry im clearly not your average person experiencing >38° on a regular basis. There are plenty of humans that exist in climates that fall entirely outside of what you Americans consider "normal". Which is why "-18 - 38 is the 'normal' range for an average person" is such an American thing to say. You took your own climate and projected it across the world.
Personally I like to go with the system that makes the most sense for 70% of earth's surface and 64% of a human body.
What? -18C to 38C is a massive range. Only a very small percentage of people would experience temperatures outside that range for most the year.
Tell that to Germany who have now hit 42° during summer thanks to global warming. If you really think that it's a tiny minority that live in climates who experience those temperatures then you are not very well travelled. Note also that a lot of countries have a real temperature <38 but thanks to the humidity it feels >38. Farenheit is just another temperature scale. There is nothing more intuitive about it than any other scale. If we were always told the temperature in kelvin we would think that to feel the most natural.
Just accept that we like our scales because they are familiar and not because they are better.
Now you are almost arguing against yourself, I can use the same argument about body temperature, just look for 37 instead of 100
And this is a pro for me where I live.
These don't square.
Celsius and farenheit is just as suitable for daily life. You learn your important reference points and go from there.
Sure, water is a really good system and it works well.
And for F that range is -40 to 104. See how you get 64 extra degrees of precision and nearly all of them are double digit numbers? No downside.
Furthermore F can use its base 10 system to describe useful ranges of temperature such as the 20s, 60s, etc. So you have 144 degrees instead of just 80, and you also have the option to utilize a more broad 16 degree scale that’s also built in.
You might say that Celsius technically also has an 8 degree scale(10s, 30s), but I would argue that the range of 10 degrees Celsius is too broad to be useful in the same way. In order to scale such that 0C is water freezing and 100C boiling, it was necessary for the units to become larger and thus the 10C shorthand is much less descriptive than the 10F shorthand, at least for most human purposes.
As you might imagine I completely disagree.
For my purposes 20's, 30's, negative 10's and so on is perfectly good, and I would describe my purposes as human.
Again, this is based on your, and my, learned reference points. Of course you feel the scale of the farenheit is better suited for describing your life, those are your learned reference points.
I have my own learned reference points based on the Celsius scale I grew up with and, suprise suprise, to me they're superior.
So your position is that whatever we are taught as children, we naturally consider superior. I strive to be more of a free thinker.
It's patently obvious that having 16 versus 8 gradations to describe an appropriate temperature range is superior. But you can't even accept that minor concession.
Yet you fail miserably. Arguing your deeply learned arbitrary system is better than other peoples deeply learned arbitrary system.
I can't, 1 degree C is all the accuracy I've ever needed, for anything honestly.
My position is both systems are arbitrary, both systems have ranges appropriate for humans, both systems have all the accuracy most people would ever need. I haven't seen any actual objective arguments to the contrary. Lots of qualia arguments mind you, but none objective.
To be clear, I'm not saying people are wrong to use C. People can use any unit they want for all I care. I'm just clarifying the point of the main post.
Totally, same. This thread was started by OPs reply
That was what triggered my response, otherwise I probably woulda just upvoted and kept scrolling.
The fuck does this mean
"Kilometres is how cars drive. Feet is how people run"
This has the same level of nuance and thought behind it. It's just stupid.
It only works if you grew up in a country that uses Fahrenheit. I didn't, so to me Celsius is how I feel. I've no idea whether 20 f is jeans and a t-shirt weather, or if I should be getting my coat. 20 c however I know that as long as it's not windy I'll be good with jeans and a t-shirt, but that it's still a little too cool to get out my shorts.
You mean other than the fact only a tiny proportion of people in the world use Fahrenheit?
It didn’t say which people. Also, I’m from South East Asia and have used Fahrenheit my entire life as a means to measure body temperature using mercury thermometers during fever time. It’s so much easier to say whether a fever is above 100 or not and then how much above 100.
So people do feel in Fahrenheit. A fuck ton of them do.
Yes, I know the meme is about the weather but… take a chill pill and look at your prejudices.
My guy, you asked what the flaw was...
It also closely matches the weather experience in many places. Where I live 0 F is about the coldest it ever gets and 100 F is about the hottest it ever gets. I know there are places that get a little hotter or colder, but we have humidity here which prevents it from getting hotter, and this region just doesn't get colder. It's a 0-100 scale of human experience.
5-ish percent isn't exactly tiny
It's tiny enough to be an issue for the meme..
America maybe?